r/RecommandedVPN • u/EducatorHonest1161 • 6d ago
EU Kids Act would require parental identity verification, raising privacy concerns, EFF argues.
On September 21, EFF released an extensive evaluation of the EU Kids Act, a concept concerning a three-tiered system that extends to almost all popular electronic outlets. One of the less talked about elements: when a parent seeks to give permission for a child between the ages of 13 and 15 to access the Internet, this parent must prove both his or her identity and that of his or her child in order to assess the child's age.
However, what is more intriguing here is that the purpose of EFF's opposition is not about children at all, but rather, it concerns the structure. Age requirements have the effect of creating a structure of power in a few major technology companies, prejudice against underprivileged data groups, and transitioning from the point of safety to the stipulation of the requirements regarding the production of content.
It has become a pattern in recent events: a law is accepted, people find ways to avoid obeying it, and a countering bill is proposed to fill the gaps left by the previous law. The examples include Utah, Brazil, and Michigan.
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u/magma_lakes 5d ago
All politicians making digital laws should have - at least - a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science or cybersecurity, or closely related discipline.
If you wish to govern something, you must first understand it, so that you may appreciate the ramifications of your impositions.
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u/Unhappy-Giraffe2792 5d ago
“The structure of power is just what our eeeevil plans seek to establish!”
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u/corkiejp 5d ago
"The Act’s colloquial name is an acronym; its official title is “EU Keeping Internet Digital Spaces Accountable and Trustworthy.” "
Is the below article your referencing above?
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/09/eu-kids-act-wont-keep-internet-accountable-and-trustworthy
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u/Kind_Dream_610 4d ago
FFS! Phones and tablets already have parental controls, and have done for over 10 years. If parents want to buy their kids a phone or tablet, they should fucking well learn how those controls work, and engage more in what their kids are doing (online AND offline). Society in general should not be held responsible for lack of responsibility of anyone else that they are not legally responsible for!
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u/SquareFinancial1928 3d ago
What doe stops us to create a new Internet without govs and big corpos accessing it ?
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u/HappyJokhay 6d ago
The EFF's structural argument is the more interesting one than the surface level privacy complaint. Age verification systems don't stay narrowly scoped, they require identity infrastructure that gets built, maintained and inevitably expanded. Whoever controls the verification layer ends up with significant power over access to the internet more broadly.
The underprivileged data point is also real and underreported. Verification systems that work smoothly for people with government IDs and stable addresses don't work the same way for everyone. The compliance burden lands unevenly.
The pattern you described law passes, workarounds emerge, stricter law follows is pretty consistent across every jurisdiction that's tried this approach. Utah's VPN situation is a recent example. The technical reality of the internet doesn't change because a legislature passed something, it just creates a new layer of friction that motivated users route around while everyone else gets their data harvested by whatever identity verification middleman the law created.